{"id":532879,"date":"2023-07-23T04:23:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-23T11:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=532879"},"modified":"2023-07-23T04:23:01","modified_gmt":"2023-07-23T11:23:01","slug":"world-championships-day-one-finals-mollie-ocallaghan-ryan-held-to-lead-off-for-top-seeded-400-free-relays-full-lineups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-day-one-finals-mollie-ocallaghan-ryan-held-to-lead-off-for-top-seeded-400-free-relays-full-lineups\/","title":{"rendered":"World Championships, Day One Finals: Mollie O’Callaghan, Ryan Held to Lead Off For Top-Seeded 400 Free Relays (Full Lineups)"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Championships, Day One Finals: Mollie O’Callaghan, Ryan Held to Lead Off For Top-Seeded 400 Free Relays<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first finals session of the World Championships will conclude with the women’s and men’s 400 freestyle relays, and the top teams in both events will make significant changes entering the evening session. For the heavily-favored Australian women,\u00a0defending 100 freestyle world champion\u00a0Mollie O’Callaghan<\/strong> will lead off while defending Olympic champion\u00a0Emma McKeon<\/strong> will anchor, and the top-seeded American men add\u00a0Ryan Held<\/strong> to swim the first leg.<\/p>\n

The Australian big names will join a pair of returnees from the morning session,\u00a0Shayna Jack<\/strong> and\u00a0Meg Harris<\/strong>, both members of last year’s world-title winning squad. Jack will not race the individual 100 free in Fukuoka, but she swam a time of 52.28 leading off the prelims relay for the top time in the world this year in the event<\/a>, two tenths quicker than O’Callaghan’s previous No. 1 mark of 52.48.<\/p>\n

The Americans will be favored to win the silver medal here, with\u00a0Gretchen Walsh\u00a0<\/strong>set to lead off the event after not racing in the prelims and\u00a0Kate Douglass<\/strong> coming in to anchor. Both swimmers have other races in the session, with Walsh in the 100 fly semifinals and Douglass in the 200 IM semis. They join the returning\u00a0Abbey Weitzeil<\/strong> and Olivia Smoliga<\/strong> from prelims after both split 52s in the morning.<\/p>\n

The Netherlands will anchor with\u00a0Marrit Steenbergen<\/strong>, who split 52.13 in the morning, while China adds the versatile\u00a0Zhang Yufei<\/strong> on the anchor leg after\u00a0Cheng Yujie<\/strong>,\u00a0Yang Junxuan<\/strong> and\u00a0Wu Qingfeng<\/strong>. The list of stars leading off for their country include Canada’s\u00a0Summer McIntosh\u00a0<\/strong>and Swedish world-record holder\u00a0Sarah Sjostrom<\/strong> in the 100 free.\u00a0Rikako Ikee<\/strong> will lead off for Japan.<\/p>\n

On the men’s side, the Americans will go with Held,\u00a0Jack Alexy<\/strong>,\u00a0Chris Guiliano<\/strong> and\u00a0Matt King<\/strong>, while the second-seeded Australia adds superstar\u00a0Kyle Chalmers<\/strong> to swim the anchor leg after\u00a0Jack Cartwright<\/strong>,\u00a0Flynn Southam<\/strong> and\u00a0Kai Taylor<\/strong>. Canada will move\u00a0Josh Liendo<\/strong> to the leadoff leg after he anchored in prelims<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Italy, the bronze-medal team in this event last year, will bring in 100 backstroke world-record holder Thomas Ceccon<\/strong> to swim the anchor leg behind\u00a0Alessandro Miressi<\/strong>,\u00a0Lorenzo Zazzeri<\/strong> and\u00a0Manuel Frigo<\/strong>. That’s the exact team that made the podium last year, albeit in a different order. Finally, the No. 1 swimmer in the world in the 100 free, China’s\u00a0Pan Zhanle<\/strong>, will lead off for his team.<\/p>\n

Notably, Great Britain likely would have been the favorite in the men’s race, but\u00a0Jacob Whittle<\/strong> false-started in prelims to eliminate the Brits from contention in this event<\/a>.<\/p>\n